Australian tax office names names in multinational avoidance row

Today, the Australian Tax office (ATO) released the tax details (total revenue, taxable income and tax paid) of more than 1,500 companies for the 2014 financial year.

More than a third of all large public and foreign companies in Australia paid no tax a year ago.

You can search by company name, or sort using the column headings. The Tax Transparency report focuses on more than 1,500 publicly listed companies with more than $100 million worth of sales.

Among them are Qantas Airways, which earned $14.9 billion, ExxonMobil Australia ($9.617 billion), Virgin Australia ($4.3 billion) and General Motors Australia ($4.138 billion).

Senator Dastyari said some companies profit shifting tax arrangements were legal but not moral.

Of course, paying no tax doesn’t necessarily mean that the companies are avoiding tax.

However the federal government insists the Australian Taxation Office has all the powers it needs to ensure multinational companies are paying their fair share of tax.

United States investment banks that paid no Australian company tax that year included $US248.6 billion JPMorgan Chase, and $US77.63 billion Goldman Sachs. On Thursday, Apple reiterated that position, adding that it “paid the full company tax rate of 30 percent” in Australia.

“It is a great pity that a culture of naming and shaming and a form of corporate assassination has been allowed to develop when collectively these companies contribute enormously to the Australian economy through job creation, innovation, infrastructure delivery and of course tax revenue”, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said.

“Companies do not pay company income tax on revenue [total income], they pay it on profits after paying all expenses including wages, capital replacement, supplier costs, fleet costs and other operating expenses”, Ms Westacott said.

The move to name the companies comes amid mounting public anger at corporate tax minimisation at a time of government spending cuts and a budget blowout resulting from collapsing commodities prices.

“Publishing this data is a step forward in improving corporate tax transparency”, tax commissioner Chris Jordan said in a statement on Thursday.

The 1539 companies listed accounted for $40 billion of the $67 billion in company tax paid in 2013-14, she said.

Philip Morris, the tobacco giant, had revenue of $3.2 billion, with a taxable income of $746 million, and tax payable of $223 million.

Early next year the ATO releases similar information for Australian-owned private companies with revenues of over $200 million, under legislation passed by the government with the support of the Greens earlier this month.

“Large corporates now have to consider the impact of their tax information as a factor in managing their reputation with the markets, their shareholders, their consumers and in the Australian community”.

Apple boasted revenues of $6 billion, with a taxable income of $247 million and paid $74 million tax, while Fairfax Media had revenues of $1.65 billion with a taxable income of $69 million and paid $16 million tax.